Slatt (?), n. [See Slat a strip of board.] A slab of stone used as a
veneer for coarse masonry. Knight.
Slat"ter (?), v. i. [E. slat to throw or dash about.] To be careless,
negligent, or aswkward, esp. with regard to dress and neatness; to be
wasteful. Ray.
Slat"tern (?), n. A woman who is negligent of her dress or house; one
who is not neat and nice.
Slat"tern, a. Resembling a slattern; sluttish; slatterny. "The slattern
air." Gay.
Slat"tern (?), v. t. To consume carelessly or wastefully; to waste; --
with away. [R.] Chesterfield.
Slat"tern*li*ness (?), n. The quality or state of being slatternly;
slovenliness; untidiness.
Slat"tern*ly, a. Resembling a slattern; sluttish; negligent; dirty. --
adv. In a slatternly manner.
Slat"ter*pouch` (?), n. A dance or game played by boys, requiring
active exercise. [Obs.] Gayton.
Slat"ting (?), Slats, collectively.
Slat"ting, n. The violent shaking or flapping of anything hanging loose
in the wind, as of a sail, when being hauled down.
Slat"y (?), a. [From Slate.] Resembling slate; having the nature,
appearance, or properties, of slate; composed of thin parallel plates,
capable of being separated by splitting; as, a slaty color or texture.
Slaty cleavage (Min.), cleavage, as of rocks, into thin leaves or
plates, like those of slate; -- applied especially to those cases in
which the planes of cleavage are not parallel to the planes of
stratification. It is now believed to be caused by the compression
which the strata have undergone. -- Slaty gneiss (Min.), a variety of
gneiss in which the scales of mica or crystals of hornblende, which are
usually minute, form thin laminæ, rendering the rock easily cleavable.
Slaugh"ter (?), n. [OE. slautir, slaughter, slaghter, Icel. sltr slain
flesh, modified by OE. slaught, slaht, slaughter, fr. AS. sleaht a
stroke, blow; both from the root of E. slay. See Slay, v. t., and cf.
Onslaught.] The act of killing. Specifically: (a) The extensive,
violent, bloody, or wanton destruction of life; carnage.
On war and mutual slaughter bent.
Milton.
(b) The act of killing cattle or other beasts for market.
Syn. -- Carnage; massacre; butchery; murder; havoc.
Slaugh"ter, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Slaughtered (?); p. pr. & vb. n.
Slaughtering.] 1. To visit with great destruction of life; to kill; to
slay in battle.
Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes Savagely slaughtered.
Shak.